What Can I Use to Cover My Garage Floor?
Rubber and vinyl, or PVC, flooring options are available and are both viable options for garage floor covering. More often than not, garages are used for storage or as a place to park your vehicles; however, many people opt to turn their garage into something more recreational such as a game room, den or even an extra bedroom. Because of this, it is important to install resilient flooring for the integrity of the floors and of other items such as furniture or expensive equipment. Garages used as parking are often covered in abrasions from the vehicle’s tires or from the items stored in there. A rubber or PVC garage flooring options are both durable and abrasion resistant resilient flooring that will provide maximum protection for you garage floors as well as the items being stored in there.
What is the Best Floor Covering for a Garage?
Although both rubber and PVC garage floor covering are available, the best flooring option for a garage is rubber flooring. Rubber-Cal offers rubber garage flooring in both natural and synthetic rubber variations to offer more options as to which variation is best suited for your garage and what it is being used for (or as). All the rubber variations will have excellent anti-slip qualities as well as durability and a low compression set which allows rubber flooring to retain its shape even under extreme weight or pressure and provide comfort when standing on its surface. Additionally, synthetic rubber garage flooring options are even more valuable! Synthetic rubber variations have all the natural benefits of rubber with enhanced qualities natural rubber just cannot offer including resistance to chemicals and greases/oils.
Is Vinyl Flooring Good for Garage?
Vinyl, or PVC, garage flooring options are also ideal materials for covering your garage floors and is a more inexpensive alternative to rubber and its variations. Like rubber, PVC garage flooring is often used for protective purposes for both the existing floor and whatever is on top and to provide enhanced traction. PVC also, like some synthetic rubber variations, is resilient against “weathering, chemical rotting, corrosion and abrasion” (omnexus.specialchem.com). Unlike rubber, however, PVC is more chemical resistant and flame retardant than rubber garage flooring. In addition, “PVC has good physical as well as mechanical properties and provides excellent cost-performance advantages. It has long life span and need low maintenance”. PVC is a lighter and less expensive alternative flooring for garages that may come into contact with chemicals, greases/oils and abrasion causing items.
Benefits of PVC Garage Flooring Options
Aside from the compositional qualities that make PVC flooring an ideal option for garage flooring, a beneficial quality PVC garage flooring has that rubber garage flooring does not offer is a metallic finish. PVC garage flooring is available in two different finishes – matte and metallic. A metallic finish offers a reflective surface that is ideal for dark areas such as basements and garages. These areas usually have low or dim lighting that make it difficult to see what you are doing. This can become especially dangerous when parking a car even when headlights and taillights are on. A metallic finish on a PVC floor can help reflect some of the light from other light sources to illuminate the area better.
1. What is Rubber Garage Flooring Used for?
A garage can be a rough area. If you take a look at your garage floor, you will probably notice that it is pretty beaten up and stained. A key feature of rubber garage floor covering adds floor protection; however, it is able to provide many more benefits including, moisture resistance, comfort and anti-slip properties. Synthetic rubber variations of garage flooring can offer added grease/oil and chemical resistance. While PVC is able to provide most of those benefits, it is no match to the many, many benefits of natural and synthetic rubber garage flooring.
1(a). Floor Protection
Rubber garage mats are meant to protect the existing flooring of your garage area. Rubber can guard against a range of damages that may occur from heavy objects and moisture as they tend to see the presence of heavier objects in them ranging from cars to automotive equipment, even beds and other furniture. When it comes to considering your garage flooring options, you have to take into account the sheer weight of these objects and the damage they can cause which may affect the overall appearance and integrity of your garage area. Rubber garage flooring is ideal for absorbing the impact of heavy abrasive objects.
1(b). Moisture Resistance
By the nature of its location, barely separated from the outdoors, a garage will be prone to wet condition exposure. Rainwater can run under a garage door and humidity can easily produce moisture. But a rubber garage floor covering is impervious to liquids and can safeguard against damage. In addition to damage from solid objects, rubber garage floor covering is great at repelling the harmful effects of water. In cases of moisture resistance, a rubber garage floor covering is particularly important as to prevent the formation of harmful organic byproducts like mold and mildew. Rubber does not harbor organisms and unlike carpets or wood products it will not serve as a host of mold. It is a much better guard against moisture than existing wood or laminate floors. Rubber garage flooring is ideal for shielding any existing floors against potentially costly damages.
1(c). Comfort
Regardless of the type of rubber garage floor covering used in the room, the floors will be more comfortable to walk on. Rubber is much softer than bare concrete floors. Some of our rubber garage mats come with different thickness gauges that are meant to provide an extra degree of comfort for the feet standing on top of them. This is a very useful quality to have. For example, if you use your garage as a fitness area or a workshop you will often find yourself on your feet quite a bit. Pressure can slowly build around your soles, ankles, and lower back, causing increasing amounts of discomfort. Rubber garage flooring can go a long way in minimizing the chance of discomfort occurring because it relieves such pressure.
1(d). Anti-Slip Qualities
An increase in comfort will also lead to an increase in safety. With a rubber garage floor covering secured in the area, your feet will benefit from anti-slip traction. Again, this is due to the rubber material that composes our garage flooring options. Rubber comes with an innately superior level of grip that will provide the traction your feet require. Some of our rubber garage mats and interlocking garage floor tiles are designed with special surface textures that are meant to enhance traction. In many cases, this texturing (combined with rubber’s friction) allows garage floor covering to function admirably as a traction mat even when wet or dirty. If you need any further reasons to look at a garage floor covering, consider that some forms will have high levels of resistance to varying chemicals and fluids – essential in a setting such as a workshop – and is very easy to maintain through a simple cleaning process with soap and water.
2. Forms of Garage Flooring
Garages are not all one size. There are some garages that are smaller and some that are larger; therefore, our line of garage floor covering can come in the form of rolled rubber garage mats or as interlocking garage floor tiles. Each are easily installed and customizable and are available with several different surface patterns that are meant to enhance traction. Our line of rubber garage flooring makes for a great Do-It-Yourself project that will save you the unnecessary expense of hiring outside help. Whether you are looking for large, wall-to-wall garage floor coverage or a rubber garage floor covering that you can easily customize into any size, there is a rubber garage flooring option that is best suited for your specific needs.
2(a). Custom Cut Garage Matting Rolls
Garage flooring options that come in the form of flooring rolls can be ordered in custom lengths up to 50 consecutive feet so that they better suit the specific dimensions of your garage space. Since this form of matting is generally a larger form of rubber garage mats, they are ideally used for covering wall-to-wall areas. These flooring rolls are the most recommended out of all other garage flooring options since they are the sturdiest. They are meant to be permanently installed using glue; however, if you would like a less permanent installation, double-sided tape is also an acceptable application method. These rolled mats were made with durability in mind and are ideal for garages that experience heavy wear and tear. Additionally, custom cut garage mats are available in both rubber and PVC materials.
2(b). Interlocking Garage Floor Tiles
If you desire an alternative to rolled rubber mats, then consider our line of interlocking garage floor tiles. Unlike custom cut flooring rolls, these tiles are only available in rubber materials. These rubber tiles are known for being very simple to handle with no other necessary adhesives for installation. Some tiles come in puzzle forms, which mean that their edges are designed to lock onto each other like pieces of a puzzle. Other tiles come with holes on their sides that are meant for special connector pins that hold the tiles together firmly. Garage floor covering in the form of tiles can be used as a temporary flooring solution, so they can be easily moved around as you see fit. Due to this easy interlocking mechanism, each of these interlocking garage floor tiles are able to be easily replaced in case it is damaged without having to replace the entire floor. This can be particularly useful in a garage floor covering, especially if you are using the room to store your car, or as a gym or workshop.
Garage floor covering made of rubber or PVC is a great investment and a necessity to have. With our easy to install garage flooring options coming in the forms of rolled PVC and rubber garage mats and rubber interlocking garage floor tiles, you will have strong floor protection at affordable rates. Their considerable anti-slip and anti-fatigue qualities will also help make your garage area be safer and more comfortable. Protect your garage area with Rubber-Cal’s line of rubber or PVC garage floor covering!